Savage Kingdom

Behind them, a snarl rose closer. Kito twists his body around to cover hers, staring at the dark shadow stepping closer and mirrored it’s growl, sliding backward to press her against the wall so he could be the barrier in between. He was ready to attack if needed. He wasn’t taking any chances with anything.

Even with his great vision in the dark, he couldn’t tell what it was. Only that it was tall and had a tail and ears like him, yet even then he couldn’t tell the kind it was. It was a male. Definitely male.

Kito’s snarl echoes until his vision blurs in the visible darkness. Swirls fill his perception and his head was very light, his body also rapidly numbing. Clara could feel his body even falling back on her and she held him to keep from falling to the floor. His eyes were now hooded and his mind was semiconscious. The world around him fades.

“K-Kito?” She shifts from behind him and to his side. Without her body keeping him up, it slid from the wall and slumps to the floor. Her heart had the same effect, her mind forgetting about the danger instantly as she lightly shook him. Panic settles in. “Na'Kito! A-Are you okay? Please, please get up. Please.” She felt tears rush to her eyes as she feared for the worse, her hands on his head to hold it up. “You’re pale... Why are you so pale?”

He could hear everything. He was too weak to move. He knew what had happened the moment that it all went blurry. It had been a while since the last he fed, his body now paying the price at the worst of times at the importance of not forgetting to keep himself fed. Even through all of this danger. There was nothing to hunt and feeding hasn’t quite been on his mind.

She flinches when the dark figure made a noise. Light dances around the tunnel. The dark shadow wasn’t a black silhouette any longer.

“Oltee humol kumar?”

Her eyes finally saw the creature. Or more like a stranger...

She didn’t know what to make of the being. It was a man, holding a strange torch, a stick with a fire lit at the end of it. She wonders when he had the time to make it as quick as he did, but she didn’t question it. Not when her words were forgotten at the alien sight of him.

He is tall, even taller than Kito who was already higher than her. His clothes were ripped, rotten, filthy, singed, and shredded from his fur vest to his dark, old trousers. It reminds her of what Caji would wear, but this man didn’t look like any she had seen before with her time here. His tail seems similar to Caji’s with dark spots and slightly more fur on the end. His ears only had small similarities to the Kikera’s but also had a resemblance to a Xutashi’s, his tail and ears were as black as his hair. Dark as the moonless sky that was void of any stars. His eyes are red with only the streaks of blacks coating the outer rims.

Black blood covers his chin and clothes. Most of all his skin was deathly pale, even more so than Kito’s.

Her emotions had a mind of their own as a tear slips from her eye and down her cheek. “I-I don’t know what to do...” She looks away from the stranger and back at Kito, even moving her head closer to wrap his arms around him. “What’s wrong, Kito? How do I help you? Are you sick? Kito, please speak to me.”

She didn’t know if the stranger standing by would kill them or not. Even with that thought in mind, it didn’t scare her as much as Kito laying sick on the floor with her not knowing how to help him. His skin was so pale and his eyes were zoned out, his pupils halfway enlarged.

She was unaware of the fascination the being near them had while he crouches and continues to keep a small distance from them. His eyes were on the two, but he mostly keeps his sights on the human that he had not seen before until now. In his difficult long life, he had seen a lot of things.

Never a human.

He certainly hadn’t thought one would be in this cave.

His voice didn’t startle her. Her fear was too focused on Kito for anything else to worry her at that point. His voice was rough and scratchy, a sign of dehydration. At first, he spoke on the way of the ancients, but she responded only with a confused face. He took a moment as he secretly gathers information. He repeats, “Feed him.”

Two words. She looks at him in confusion. She didn’t know what he meant at first until a past conversation came into her mind. Kito had told her what he needed to live. She held up her hand and looked at the visible veins in her wrist before offering it to him without a second thought of the consequences. Her mind to jumbled right now, she held his head in her other arm for better support, hovering her wrist over his face. Trying to get his attention through the light-headed feeling in his head. Deprived. “Is this what you need? Don’t be scared to do it. I don’t mind, it’s just pain. I just need you better.”

Behind the man crouching was a shadow that didn’t quite sync to his movements. The dark silhouette stood high when he was low, and the light of the torch he lit easily before from his belt made the figure stand out. The shadow seems to have a mind of its own when its hand went to its chin to rub it inquisitively, obvious from the bend elbow indention. Watching like a flower on the wall. They were not even connected. It moves freely.

Kito knew he could protect her better if he did it. He knew the consequences more than she did, the most important ones that she didn’t realize. They had made so much contact already that if he did this she could go into heat. He didn’t want her to go through that down here. In this place. He remains stubborn.

Until the man near them spoke again with more words than before. “If you replenish me instead, little human,” his tone was gruff. Exhausted. He had been trapped for too long. “I will take each of you to the surface. You will be free of this place.”

The Xutashi attempts to grab her wrist, his movements slow, and his grip too weak to fully stop her. His growl didn’t seem to have any effect on the stranger only to convey that he was displeased with the idea. He didn’t want her to go in heat but he certainly wouldn’t allow him to be the first to officially bite her to feed. It was envy. It was too intimate, even through her wrist.

In truth, he wasn’t sure how bad it could turn things or how her body would react exactly. This was still all new to him.

The stranger said nothing. He remains as still as the stone surrounding them. His shadow was the one that inches closer from behind him and his tail curls in question. She saw it from the corner of her eye and her head turns to it. When she looks at it the form hops back and lowers itself like a living thing with its own thoughts. She moves further from it and held Kito tighter to her. It was her trying to protect him now.

The screech of the flying monster was heard in the far distance of the tunnel. The stranger didn’t give it a second glance the way Clara did. “Make your choice,” he says finally. “But I can save you both.”

“D-Do you promise?” Her eyes were still teary, and if she was going to help a stranger then she wanted to know if he would keep his word. Even if his word is all he can provide to her.

He didn’t hesitate. He knew that once he did she would catch on and his body was desperate for the nourishment. He needs it badly, he would end up the same as the golden Xutashi laying before him soon. “I will keep my word. I do not lie, or slay innocent blood.”

She stares like if she did long enough he would admit if his words were a lie then. Feeling Kito’s low breathing and weak grip on her wrist made her wish she had enough for each of them. Does she? How much would one need to get better? She still didn’t know much about their feeding habits. Kito never spoke in great detail about it. She reached out her wrist towards the stranger. “Please don’t make me regret this.”

“No,” Kito felt as if his body was filled with rocks. He attempts to move her away by wrapping his arms around her and tugging her towards him but fails. He hated that he couldn't. That he didn’t have the strength.

The stranger on the other hand didn’t waste a second when he was offered a chance to finally resupply himself. A need he denied himself for so, so long. He snatches her arm and pulls her forward and out of the grasp of the other, his fangs broke the surface of the skin and sunk deep. She watches with panic as it burned at first, her shouts bouncing off the walls before it was numbed over the sensation of him feeding.

Usually, only sips were needed, but he was so drained that more was needed to get his skin back to the darkly tanned tone it once was before. Faded spots cover his skin, darker than a Kikera’s, and his eyes were brighter than it was before.

He releases her before too much was taken. She felt light-headed and nearly fell to the floor if the stranger hadn’t looped his arms under hers and lifted her.

He put the weak human over his shoulder with smoothness, now having the strength to grab the Xutashi that was limp on the floor by the arm and drags his body through other tunnels. He would keep his word.

He knew the maze well so finding the next exit was easy. Being underground gave him time to thoroughly inspect each turn and dead-end, using his strength to pull each of them towards an upward tunnel and closer to the surface, which he also knew the beast had gone as well and covered the entrance.

It was where the wind came from. He was certain that it escaped. Although it was a serious matter he would worry about when he breaks free of this place himself. The beast, just like all animals, would return to a safe spot they knew to heal. It would give him time to find it again and finish what was started, for... He didn’t remember how long it has been for him inside here this time.

At the surface where the sun was in the center of the sky and bright. The middle of the jungle where usual lively animals that dwell within it, like the four-legged herbivore that was grazing on the large, glossy leaves was frightened by the arm that broke out of the ground. It hooted and ran from the assumed danger.

The hand dug through the soil from below, breaking parts away for a larger hole to form and fall apart so that he could pull him and two others out. He lays the human on the ground so that he could turn and lift the male second, who he also pulled a little further out.

Clara was still awake and pulls her body to Kito, she even offers her wrist to him even if she knew that the stranger took a lot already, but even then they were sips. She should still have enough for him to get better. She hoped. “Please, Kito. You need something. Even if it’s not much.”

He made a small noise of disagreement.

“No,” she uses a sterner tone, her worry fueled her determination to get him to do it if he liked it or not. “I don’t want to hear it. Just take what you need to get better, I don’t care. Really, I don’t. Just take enough so you can at least walk. Dammit, Na’Kito, I’ll start pulling on your ears and tail hard if you don’t-”

She couldn’t hold back the yelp when he grabs her wrist and bit over the spot that man had taken from her before. The smell alone on her was enough to make him turn to his need to try to get rid of it. She was meant to be his.

He should have been the first one to do this, growling while he fed slowly, it was the first time that she had seen him resort to the animal that always lingers behind the surface of his eyes, but now his eyes shut in bliss with his darker thoughts of purposely triggering her into the sweet smelling heat. After all, he did the same for Kai. He wouldn’t need herbs for this. For that moment he didn’t care. He continued to feed, the taste filling his mouth felt like bliss on his tongue. He wished he could have more of it. He groans.

She was embarrassed by the noises she made that the man standing near could hear. She didn’t make that noise before and when he bit her there was no pain. It was the opposite. Untainted pleasure shakes her and other places as her hazel eyes dilate large enough themselves. She felt like she was on fire everywhere. Her breasts. Her stomach even, heat building up and tingling to her...

He stops when he finally regained a more civil conscience on how much she could spare him. He stops because he didn’t want her pale, and when he releases her he made sure to cover the pinpricks with his tongue, which made the fire worsen. Her heart was pounding.

He had enough to retrieve his vision and most of his strength, his body healing quickly as each wound seals without scarring. It was only enough for him to walk but if they were in a situation that he had to fight then there would be trouble. He didn’t allow himself to think about that. Especially taking his mind off the swollen flesh of him between his legs.

Each of them searches to see that the man standing close before had disappeared. There was no trace of him left behind, not even a scent trail to tell Kito which way he went. He didn’t care. The thought left his mind as soon as it entered, looking forward he could tell that the village was nearby the smoke in the sky from the Great Fire.

His mind went sidetrack again, his mind focuses on one thing as the intoxicating aroma filled his nose and he swirls towards it. It instantly dominates him and forces his body to tense and his sensitive part of himself hardening further.

It came from Clara, who leans against a large tree with dizzy eyes and her body raging against her in a way she never felt before in her life. Heat devours her so much she fears that she would burn with it, figuring it could be the Jungle around her burning. She constantly tugging at her tunic further over her knees and whimpering when her core quivered. Ached. Pleasure filled her so much it was close to pain. That couldn’t be the jungle. Impossible.

He fucked up. He did achieve what he selfishly yearned for when he bit her. He didn’t even wish to touch her to cause any more pain. Or more pleasure. He knew she was too weak to walk. He had to bear it and move closer to handle her, which she accepted by quickly moving her arms around his neck, and he picked her up bridal to begin heading for the smoke.

He didn’t know that in this situation that it was the only thing on his mind. His mind, even with the thought of returning to the tribe was crucial, was fixed on her essence that was a beacon. Entrancing him to where he walked forward but his attention was solely on her, unaware he was doing it. Her scent fills his nose so much that he tasted it on his tongue.

He wanted to taste her. He felt the urge to simply lick the skin of her neck as long as he tasted her. His purr came unrelenting, drumming, and all she could do was look back with hooded eyes while her left hand moved under the right side of his jaw, touching him, his skin smooth. It seemed to fit together perfectly.

“Where is he...?” She was speaking about the man that vanished before. Her eyes still had that dazed look inside them. She could care less right now.

He pressed his forehead against hers, her dizzy head soothed long enough that she focused on him. She smiled and held him tighter, her grip wasn’t strong. He knew he had to feed her so her body could regain what it had lost.

“I do not know, but I can’t go out and search right now,” he shivers when her hand glides down his neck, and her fingers sprawls over his chest. If he wasn’t walking he would have shut his eyes. “You smell good and I like it when you touch me.”

She wonders what she did smell like through him that made him purr as he did. “You do?”

His lips touch her face to give her soft kisses, something that she never thought she would welcome so easily. Soft butterfly brushes over her eyes, lowering to her cheeks to beside her nose. She was so caught up with wanting more contact that she allows it with ease, the memory of how she felt about his ears, tail, and eyes slipped away into the fondness she felt towards him, how he was so different.

One second he felt bad about what he did... But he wasn’t doing anything to apologize nor stop.

There was no awkwardness or walls that were between them as heat settles in and strengthens, greedily taking and selflessly giving contact. Any would do. He steps over objects with his attention entirely on her.

She adores the attention so much she didn’t want him to stop. She even put her hand on his cheek so he could continue, he slows his pace down, even stopping for her, and his warm chuckle against her cheek was enough to make her close her eyes and smile.

“Na’Kito?”

Another male voice breaking their drunk dreamy cloud and compels his snarl in response, it quickly disperses when the owner of the voice was spotted.

Standing before them was Kai’Riba, gripping his staff by his side and reflecting the curious stares moving between them. He also captured sight of their previous gentle touches, and his nose could detect the distinct odor of musk that didn’t affect him. He knew who it did impact.

He let the grin on his face show as he lifts his staff and held it beside him, “welcome back.”